Charge air coolers and exhaust gas heat exchangers are known to increase efficiency of operation of vehicles and/or reduce pollution. One such typical heat exchanger, specifically described as an exhaust gas heat exchanger, is disclosed in EP 677 715 A1 and employs shell like, heat exchanger plates that are employed in a heat exchanger where exhaust gas is cooled with cooling air. The flow channels for the exhaust formed by the shell-like heat exchanger plates are arranged in a pre-arranged spacing with cooling air passed through the spaces between adjacent plates. However, where cooling of the exhaust gas is achieved by a cooling liquid as, for example, engine coolant, then the flow channels for both the coolant and the exhaust gas are formed by means of plates that have rods or spacers between them to form the flow channels and are also enclosed by a housing, which forms the outer wall of the water cooling channels. This design, while effective, is costly to manufacture because a large number of individual parts of different configurations are required.
The present invention is directed to provide such a heat exchanger wherein the number of non-identical parts is minimized and the outer housing dispensed with.